He could take his pick from dehydration issues to a drastic weight cut and “over-cut” to a broken orbital bone and muscle fatigue.

But Wilks, a British-born Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt who now fights out of California, doesn’t want to take away from his opponent’s performance, as he recently told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio).

“It was a tough fight,” said Wilks (6-3 MMA, 1-1 UFC), who meets German welterweight Peter Sobotta (8-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) Saturday at GM Place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. “Matt Brown is obviously a tough guy, and it was quite a battle. But he beat me fair and square.”

Even before the fight started, Wilks saw his weight fluctuate wildly due to dehydration issues. His weight was down to a workable level, but by the time his body recovered and absorbed fluids on the eve of event’s weigh-ins, he was at hefty 187 pounds.

And then to compound matters, he actually overshot his target, cut too much weight, and then dealt with muscle fatigue throughout the fight.

“On Thursday, I weighed 187 pounds, and then I over-cut by two pounds to 169 by accident,” said Wilks. “By the second round, my muscles were feeling pretty weak. My [conditioning] felt OK, but midway through the second round, I felt pretty sluggish.”

And as he’d soon learn that when it rains, it pours.

Brown, the tough-as-nails slugger who resurrected his once-stalled career with a solid showing on “TUF 7,” connected quickly. Early in the bout, the fighters were stuck in a clinch and jockeying for position. With his back against the cage, Brown moved forward to create distance and then popped Wilks with a right-cross elbow strike that landed with a thud.

“He blew it out my orbital [bone] in the first 30 seconds with an elbow that hit me in the eyeball,” Wilks said. “That threw me off a little bit. I couldn’t see out of my left eye for the whole fight.”

Despite his limited vision and a weakened body – and Brown’s relentless attacks – Wilks won the first round. But he faded after that. Even UFC broadcasters Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg noted the dropoff, which was partially blamed on a flying knee that floored him in the second round.

Wilks’ best shot at victory came in the third round, when he secured a kimura from the standing position and continued torquing Brown’s left arm once he pulled guard. Wilks lost the submission but quickly reclaimed it and pulled it to a dangerous angle.

Brown endured and eventually escaped, and by then, Wilks was clearly spent.

“I just muscled out,” he said.

After hopping into mount and raining down a barrage of punches, Brown forced the TKO stoppage just seconds later.

So what did Wilks learn?

“I’ve learned some techniques after that fight and fixed some of my game, especially my wrestling takedown,” Wilks said. “He was doing a good job stopping the takedown.”

There was also another lesson.

“I also learned not to cut 18 pounds in one day,” he joked.

Now, his focus has turned to Sobotta, a fighter he admits he initially knew little about.

“I didn’t really know anything at all about him,” he said. “The UFC always sends us footage on whoever you’re going to fight. They actually only had one of his fights: UFC 99 against Paul Taylor. Then I tried to watch some footage on the Internet. But yeah, initially, I wasn’t real sure who he was.”

He’s found more footage in recent months, and some came in an all-too-obvious place: his opponent’s own video blogs, which Sobotta has posted in the lead-up to Saturday’s event.

“They actually showed him at the beach for the most part, but there was some training,” Wilks said. “But I guess he could be putting the wrong stuff on there to throw me off.”

Now, if Lady Luck throws him a break and Wilks sticks to what he feels is a solid game plan that he crafted with the likes of Mike “Joker” Guymon and Erik Paulson, he thinks a victory is in the card.

“Ideally, I’d knock him out,” Wilks said. “I’ve never won by knockout, so that would be nice. But I also like the technical aspect of the game, so a submission is OK by me too.”

MMAjunkie.com Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) live from the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show is hosted by Gorgeous George, MMAjunkie.com lead staff reporter John Morgan and producer Goze. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.

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